The Madrassa Pipes Dream - Reader comments at The New York Sun

Reader comment on:
A Madrassa Grows In Brooklyn

Submitted by The Rev. Charles H. Straut, Jr., DMin, Apr 27, 2007 20:53

The Sun is right to give room in its pages to people who espouse views, like Daniel Pipes ("A Madrassa Grows In Brooklyn, April 24, p. 5). I would hope, however, that as a responsible newspaper, your publication would print the opposing point of view and perhaps even assign a reporter to investigate these scurrilous and baseless accusations against the Khalil Gibran International Academy and its respected Principal, Debbie Almontaser, which will open in our community next fall.

The standards of the article are so sloppy and riddled with inaccuracies, half-truths and propaganda, it is hard to know where to begin. Once over lightly, however, I shall simply quote from Mr. Pipes article: "…Arabic-language instruction is inevitably laden with pan-Arabist and Islamist baggage". I would point out that Mr. Pipes' intent here is to smear the school by exploiting anti-Arab bigotry through using the code words "pan-Arabist" and "Islamist", which are descriptive words, not damning concepts. But even if those words had a sinister meaning, since he admits he, himself, learned Arabic, how did he escape catching these diseases of the mind and heart?

What he is actually doing here, of course, is exploiting the latent bigotry against Arabs that he supposes all good Americans should carry in their breast. Language is language. Grammar is grammar. But culture is what Mr. Pipes would have us fear. And his chief weapon is to brandish religion – Islam – as a code concept, a shorthand for the fears burned into American psyches by the events of Sept. 11, 2001. Long ago, of course, our own government began playing on those fears in support of its ill-advised war in Iraq, which this administration claimed had some connection will 9/11, but has never proved it.

So, Mr. Pipes attempts to convince us that anyone who disagrees with George W. Bush's bellicose policies in Iraq and Israel/Palestine (particularly Arabs/Muslims) are somehow seditious and capable even of teaching "tendentious Arab nationalist reading of Middle Eastern history" by turning "grammatical drills" into "politicized readings". That is to say, if you don't remove Arab culture from the teaching of Arab language, you are teaching unpatriotic ideas, like using Arab language and Muslim culture to convert good, right-thinking Americans into "Arabist" zealots.

The intellectual atrocities go on and on. Mr. Pipes would poison our minds against Arabs and Muslims indiscriminately, because he can't apparently tell the difference between them, let alone be able to separate fundamentalist, violent religious crazies from progressive, non-violent religious, cultural and community leaders like Sr.. Almontaser and the members of her school's Advisory Council: The Revs. Calvin O. Butts, Daniel Meeter and Al-Yateem; Rabbis Andy Backman, Melissa Weintraub and Mica Kelber; Ethical Culture leader Kisel Burns; and Imams Talib Abdul-Rashid, Shamsi Ali and Khalid Latif; as well as myself.

That is a roster of people who have dedicated their lives and work to bring people together in unity of spirit and life, through the worship of one God, known by different names in different languages, rather than rousing suspicions, hatred and their inevitable result of violence, whether it be intellectual or physical. I am sure your readers can make such basic distinctions between good and evil. I appeal to them to reject the specious and pernicious propaganda of people like Mr. Pipes and work for the kind of peace, justice and international understanding for which the Kahlil Gibran International Institute and its Principal seek to stand.

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A Madrassa Grows In Brooklyn

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